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De-Pchanization
De-Pchanization (short for De-Ponychanization) refers to a campaign carried out on GETchan by the Communist Party of GETchan from 2012 to 2015. Its main goal was to introduce customs and practices that were seen as commonplace on most other chans to GETchan, which had previously been heavily influenced by Ponychan's "love and tolerance" policy. Most of Ponychan's offshoots went through similar situations, though none as drastic and ambitious as GETchan's. Background Main articles: Ponychan, Ponychan Troubles, & GET Threads Prior to founder Orange Blaze's retirement in late 2012, Ponychan was bound by a strict "love and tolerance" policy. The phrase originated from the /b/ pony threads, constantly used to sarcastically reply to trolls. Orange wanted to apply the idea of real love and tolerance to his chan, however. As a result, the community that formed was quite different to the 4chan's community. Even slightly foul language was wordfiltered to seemingly random words, most users used a name and tripcode in contrast with the largely anonymous nature of most chans, and corruption was practically seen as a requirement for new staff members. Customs from other chans were often censored, as even the mention of trolling was forbidden and GETs were discouraged and later removed completely before being quietly restored. It reached a point where posting memes from 4chan became a risk, encouraging users to create their own Ponychan-specific memes. The phrase "free speech" was even shortly filtered to "Ponychan is not a country. It is a website." at the height of the Ponychan Troubles. GETters were often given the sort end of the stick, with the GET Threads becoming an object of distaste for some users due to the discouragement of GETs by the staff and the general disdain for anything from other chans. As a result, GETchan was founded on 6 November, 2011. For a small period of time, the GET Threads and GETchan existed alongside each other. However, some Ponychan users who disliked the GET Threads followed the link to GETchan and continued to aggravate the GETchanners. The whole ordeal was resolved on 12 November, 2011, and the GET Threads were discontinued to prevent any further mishaps. For its first two months of existence, GETchan was hosted on Stevenchan's server before gaining full independence on 10 January, 2012. By 18 February, 2012, the Communist Party of GETchan had obtained full power. From this point until the formation of the USSC in 2015, de-Pchanization was an official chan policy. Goals After mistreatment from both the staff and users of Ponychan, anything related to Ponychan's method of moderation became a target for change. The campaign had several goals, most of which were successful and one of which, in particular, was not. General goals of the plan included: * Incorporating words back into the vocabulary on GETchan that were deemed offensive on Ponychan. * A ban on wordfilters of any kind due to the perceived vast censorship caused by them on Ponychan. * A massive cut in authoritarianism through the use of an electoral system. * Phasing out of pony imagery and adoption of symbols related to GET history such as Yami Yugi and Cirno. * Forming of relations with chans outside of the Inner Chans. * Complete anonymization of the chan. Conclusion and Aftermath Throughout the campaign itself, most of the goals of de-Pchanization were accomplished. The only exception to this is the goal for complete anonymization, which had little traction. Following the creation of the USSC, the campaign was deemed complete and policies would no longer be dictated based on de-Pchanization. Wordfilters would soon be introduced for the first time in GETchan's history as a method to stifle any potential fascist rhetoric. Symbols of GET history would soon be replaced by specifically GETchan-related imagery, with Yami Yugi and Cirno being replaced by a GETchan original character named Rodina. She would become the chan's official mascot and appear on various art and propaganda in following years. An unintended side effect of the campaign is the fact that, to this day, ponies as a whole are generally looked down on due to them being associated with Ponychan. While replacing official pony imagery with GET-related imagery was one of the goals of the campaign, ponies themselves were not an intended target and were never actually banned. Still, the stigma behind posting ponies remains on GETchan to this day. In 2013, Ponychan itself would undergo a similar process after Orange's retirement. It changed greatly during this time, as users found themselves surrounded by a completely different form of moderation. The image of "love and tolerance" slowly shattered and the users discovered the cultures of other chans. Soon people were able to say "faggot" without an extreme reaction from the userbase. Talks following the handover of the site resulted in MLPchan merging into Ponychan, which itself directly resulted in Ponyville's split from Ponychan in 2015. Ponyville itself was created on the bases of bringing back the "love and tolerance" policy from the Orange days. This itself has led to numerous problems on Ponyville, such as the Ponyville Insurgency. Nowadays Ponychan is similar to most other chans, albeit with a high percentage of users with names/tripcodes and a slant for pony-related discussion.